History under Fire, 52 photographs
by Cecil Beaton, London, Batsford 1941. With the sanction of Surrealist
structures in assemblage and painting, several photographers seemed to
relish the inadvertent shapes and narrative consequences of the architectural
damage of the War (Lee Penrose could be added as an example) .The falling
roofing looks rather fishy as a visual approximation of Jacob and the
Ladder with some artful redeployment ofloose elements.